Cream Cuts
There are some people in the world who think Can’s best song is “I Want More,” and right or wrong, they and the rest of us have had a lot to choose from when we want more of that kind of kosmische-goes-disco fugue state roiling through our systems. Tussle emerged out of San Francisco during that early ‘00s moment when the post-punkers started really getting into the full spectrum of ‘80s Hacienda booking. And while they didn’t notch the same level of Warp-shepherded cult-band lifer longevity that fellow Bay Area-minted dance freaks !!! did, Tussle at least had the kind of sporadic peaks that let them look at Nic Offer’s gang eye-to-eye. Note the label, first of all — Smalltown Supersound’s the outfit that helped elevate the Norwegian space disco movement — and you might get a further sense of who these guys are when you spot Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor in the credits, too. (He’s in the mix on the instrumental “Titan,” spiking its jittery Pop Group-y low-end tension with some Liquid Liquid hyper-percussiveness.) But the thrum that runs through these guys is a dynamic and malleable one. “Transparent C” is the attention-getter track, promising a techno-organic psychedelic get-down that it fulfills in mutating phases while also sounding as punchy to the gut as any garage-punk three-piece. “Rainbow Claw” is a glimmering yet hazy disco-dub charger that pushes it to the limit like a version of De Palma’s ‘Scarface’ where Tony Montana’s drug trade was mescaline. And closer “Meh-Teh” rides the Trans-Europa Express with the version of Kraftwerk that never stopped using the same instruments from 1970. There are also a couple nice, brief respites for those of us who don’t mind a little proto-Bitchin Bajas ambient keyboard-drone interlude or two (“Third Party”; “Personal Effects”) on an album that, for the most part, is otherwise a joyous shrine to 99 Records, and a worthy one at that.